19 March 2013

Die Hard 2 screening. A Papercuts Review

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“Yippee ki-yay motherf***er!”

Have more potent words ever been spoken? This reviewer and avid fans of the Die Hard film franchise would argue no, no they haven’t. On Sunday afternoon as a part of the You Are Here festival, a bevy of John McClane enthusiasts were treated to a screening of the greatest Christmas film ever made: Die Hard 2 – Die Harder.

At Fletcher Jones spread out amidst the milk crates and eclectic furniture familiar to most share houses and hard rubbish days, fans of all ages bonded for a brief two hours over our mutual love and adoration for that loose cannon of a cowboy from LA.

And yes, I know that the Alliance Francaise film festival is on at the moment, and the Palace Electric Cinema opened recently. But not every film has to be intellectually stimulating. Nor does each performance need to be Oscar-worthy. I’m sure that most people would agree that the atmosphere in which one watches a film can add or detract from a film significantly. And what could be more atmospheric than a room filled with die-hard Die Hard fans? (I know, I know it’s a terrible pun but I couldn’t resist, would you be able to if you were writing this review?)
A room full of people quoting tacky one-liners together in unison is a beautiful thing. Group chuckling as Bruce Willis refers to fax machines as “modern technology” provides one with a warm sense of belonging. And that couple actually re-enacting death scenes to each other was almost as entertaining as the film itself. McClane refers to himself in the third person and when he says “I can’t f***ing believe this, not another basement, not another elevator” everyone looks at each other knowingly. Joint sniggering at the stereotypical villains and their terrible accents makes each individual in the room feel like family (even with that awkward guy in the corner making pistols with his fingers and shooting at the bad guys during the action scenes). As a battered and bloodied McClane pulls out his lighter at the end of the film, we all know what is going to happen. Not a soul in that room hadn’t seen the film at least a half-dozen times. And yet you wouldn’t know it to hear the impassioned hooting, hollering and thunderous applause that followed that final “motherf***er!”.

The You Are Here festival will be screening another 90s classic: Con-Air, Wednsesday 20 March at 9.30-11pm at Fletcher Jones, with more audience participation.

Ash Goldberg

Ash Goldberg is submitting work to us as a part of the fantastic Papercuts program put together by the beautiful people at Scissors Paper Pen. The work and opinions belong to them, we are simply giving them a space to show their talents.

Check out YouAreHere.

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Primal said :

Jungle Jim said :

1. Die Hard 1 is the best Christmas film ever made

Ah good, someone beat me to it!

Closely followed by Lethal Weapon

Jungle Jim said :

1. Die Hard 1 is the best Christmas film ever made

Ah good, someone beat me to it!

Ash, a couple of points for you as an “avid fan of the Die Hard Franchise”:

1. Die Hard 1 is the best Christmas film ever made

2. John McClane is a detective with the NYPD not LAPD (he’s estranged from Holly in the first because he didn’t move to LA with her)

3. Die Harder is easily (in mine and many others opinion) the weakest of the original three movies, even though the script for Die Hard With A Vengeance wasn’t originally written for the Die Hard franchise (it was for a movie called “Simon Says”)

Still, I love the idea of public screenings of some great action flicks from the 90’s. Well done on that initiative, if not the details of one of my favourite movie franchises. I wish I wasn’t busy on tomorrow night for Con Air!

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